The Best Lemon And Poppy Seed Cake
This cake is bursting with summer flavour! It's easy to whip up and is a great cake to bring to any summer potluck.
Ingredients
- 200 g (1 cup) white castor sugar
- Zest of 2 medium sized lemons
- 220 g (1 ¾ cups) all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 3 medium eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 140 g (½ cup) plain yoghurt
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 125 ml (½ cup) vegetable oil (e.g. canola, sunflower)
Cream Cheese Icing
- 85 g cream cheese at room temperature
- 30 g butter at room temperature
- 125 g (1 cup) icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175C (350F) and generously grease a 9 inch ring cake tin*
- In a medium sized bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest and rub together until well combined (this helps carry the lemon flavour throughout the cake). Set aside. In large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add poppy seeds and whisk well to combine.
- To the sugar and lemon, add eggs and beat well (preferably with an electric mixer). Add vanilla extract, yoghurt, lemon juice and and oil and continue beating until well combined.
- Pour sugar and lemon (wet) mixture into the flour (dry) mixture and fold until just combined. Pour the cake mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted.
To make cream cheese icing
- Mix cream cheese and butter until creamy, add the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to get desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled cake and sprinkle over extra poppy seeds and lemon zest (optional).
Notes
* If you would like to bake this as a bundt cake or in a ordinary cake tin, adjust the baking time to 50-55 minutes. For muffins, divide mixture in a greased /lined muffin pan and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.